8Jun2011

From: Magda Havas
Letter to the Editor,
Peterborough Examiner, published June 6, 2011

We don t tolerate bullying in the schoolyard so why do we tolerate it in the school board? Teachers who are questioning the role out of WiFi in schools across Ontario, those who are electrically sensitive and worry about what effect this will have on their health, and those who are concerned about the effect it may have on their students are being silenced.

Principals have told several teachers that they are not to mention or to participate in any action that questions the Board s decision about WiFi. Messages posted on bulletin boards in the school have been removed. Teachers have been reprimanded and threatened.

Parents are being silenced. Schools refuse to inform parents about when WiFi will be activated in their children s school. Parents are forbidden to take their own measurements in schools that currently have WiFi or are scheduled for WiFi. They are unable to send flyers home to other parents to ask if parents agree with the Board s decisions about WiFi in the classroom.

Even without the May 31st 2011 announcement by the World Health Organization that radio frequency radiation (the type of radiation generated by WiFi) may cause cancer, this type of behavior of school boards is totally unacceptable.

When did schools get the right to expose children to potential carcinogens without the consent of their parent? When did schools get the right to threaten teachers who question their policies? When did we develop such an intolerant system that is more common is fascist regimes than in democratic societies?

Unfortunately those who are making decisions are ignorant of the technology and ignorant of the science that documents the adverse effects of radio frequency radiation generated by wireless routers. Back in the late 1980s we were concerned about the lack of science literacy among our students. Unfortunately, we are witnessing the consequences when those in positions of authority do not understand the science upon which their decisions are based, decisions that affect the lives of so many.

This ignorance coupled with intolerance and bullying is unacceptable and urgently needs to be addressed.

The same day the above letter appeared in the Peterborough Examiner (Jun 6, 2011), I received an email from Diane Lloyd, Chairperson, Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board, denying me the right to speak at a public meeting scheduled for June 27th in Peterborough at Queen Mary Public School. The board is allowing those who have the same view as the school board to speak but not those who have dissenting views and who believe that the microwave radiation generated by WiFi is harmful to students and their teachers. They are allowing other professors from Trent University to speak as well as the Medical Officer of Health, who has often voiced her lack of concern about this radiation in the classroom. Ms Lloyd writes, 'This meeting is being held to outline what our technology plan is and to respond to those questions . . . it is not a debate.'

What is so unfortunately is that many of the schools already have wired internet access and Peterborough has fiber optics in the community, yet the school board is 'dead set' on installing WiFi irrespective of how the radiation may affect students and staff! Introducing WiFi into schools that already have wired connections is a waste of money that could be better spent. But much more important than this is the unnecessarily exposure of students and staff to microwave radiation. Only time will tell how this radiation will affect their health, behavior, ability to learn, and ability to reproduce.

Dr Magda Havas

They changed their tune

Have you noticed that prior to the IARC/WHO cancer announcement, many people were quick to point out that the World Health Organisation had stated that microwave radiation was safe and did not cause cancer. Now that the WHO has changed their minds and announced cell phone radiation is a possible carcinogen, those same people are pointing to the WHO as being alarmists and they are trying to downplay the decision.

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In June 2010, Shirley Bayliff was sitting at the piano in her suburban Illinois home, giving music lessons to a student, when she heard a ''pop'' outside the house before the power went out. When she and her husband looked out the window, they saw five...

...vendor had installed a 'smart' electrical meter on the building in January. The fire broke out in the electrical box where the meter connects to the building. 'Sorry for being closed at lunch. CMPs allegedly smart meter caught fire and shut us down ...

Although there are great strides in brain tumor research, this form of cancer can quickly invade healthy brain tissue. Researchers at the World Health Organization now say 'given the large number of mobile phone users, it is important ...

Perlmutter, a Naples neurologist, was among the earliest, if not the first, doctor to sound a warning about the potential dangers of cell phones two decades ago. The coincidence of two patients in the same week with identical brain tumors and both ...

'WHO (World Health Organization) has now come to realize the studies. Longterm cellphone use can cause cancer. The same electromagnetic radiation that s given off from a phone is the same kind of radiation given off by a cellphone tower,' Ms Fedele ...

June 6, 2011. The Workers? Health and Safety Centre is quick to respond to the World Health Organizations classification of radio frequency radiation as a 'possible human carcinogen'.

They list precautionary measures recommended by the European Environment Agency (2009), by Dr. Devra Davis, and by the Canadian Government s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health (2010) and mention France Gelinas? private member s bill, Bill 128, An Act to increase cell phone safety in Ontario, that has passed its first reading.